Policy

Quick, name the most watched, financially successful and competitive sports league in the United States?
The NFL. Right?
Now, name the most tightly regulated, transparent sports league, one that has a multilayered system of wealth redistribution and the one of the strongest unions of any profession in the United States? The NFL.
Surprised?
This is not a coincidence
Major problems with concussions and Roger Goodell’s persona and salary aside, the NFL offers a tremendous lesson ...

Recently, President-elect Trump selected Rep. Tom Price, MD to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Suffice it to say, this signals Mr. Trumps’ resolve and commitment to definitively repealing and replacing. Dr. Price has already sunk his teeth into health care reform, having proposed alternative health care solutions in every Congressional session since 2009.
As a physician myself, I am delighted at the prospect of having another doctor at ...

On Tuesday, November 29, President-elect Donald Trump named Dr. Tom Price, a former orthopedic surgeon, current Republican congressman, and chair of the House Budget Committee, as his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The same day, the American Medical Association issued a press release enthusiastically endorsing Price for the position.
The next day, Dr. Andrew Gurman, the president of the AMA, came to my hospital to ...

If we want to rein in the costs of the U.S. health care system -- now equal to nearly 18 percent of the nation's gross domestic product -- we cannot ignore the fragmented technologies used to help heal and save lives.
At first glance, the devices, monitors, electronic health records and machines found in today's hospitals might inspire awe. Look beyond the slick displays with blinking lights, however, and the picture ...

The patient was in pain and had been for over a year. And it was getting worse, not better. Exhausting all avenues of treatment, I decided it was time to refer him to a pain management doctor. Because of the injury to his back, the patient lost his job and his health care coverage. With no alternative for health care coverage, he ended up covered by Medicaid. While health care ...

Every health care system in the world is facing its fair share of challenges. Aging populations, the exponential increase in chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, expensive new treatments—all at a time when most countries desperately need to curtail rising health care costs to save their economies. At the two extremes, we have fully public-funded (socialized) medicine versus entirely free-market (private) health care delivery systems. I’ve written previously ...

It is time for me to dig out from under the frustrating quagmire of paperwork imposed on me by my insurance contracts so I can reclaim my sanity and love of my work. I am terminating all of my in-network contracts, firing my billing service, and focusing my clinic time and energy entirely on patient care. Removing my practice from the control and limitations of health care insurance companies allows ...

With Donald Trump’s promise to repeal and replace Obamacare on many Americans’ minds, there are numerous questions about how the health care system will work in the very near future. There are equally as many, if not more, outlandish speculations.
Donald Trump was elected a week ago and doesn’t assume office for two more months. Much of what will get changed and how is yet unknown. Yet the mainstream media has been quick ...

The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CBS News and other news outlets have led with headlines touting the big news that Donald Trump is willing to keep parts of the Affordable Care Act -- notably the pre-existing condition protections and the ability for children up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents policies.
Except this isn’t news.
In May, Trump’s policy advisor told Healthline that a ...

With the election of Trump and a Republican Congress, it looks like the ACA is doomed. Will it be repealed in whole or in part? Will something replace it? None of us, including the new administration, know exactly what will happen. But if it does get repealed, what exactly are the consequences?
The ACA was never a full health care overhaul. It was a form of insurance reform that used subsidies ...